House Republicans’ budget blueprint unveiled March 17 would enhance states’ control over critical highway projects, and it would establish a reserve fund to develop proposals for bringing surface-transportation legislation to passage.

WASHINGTON — Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) soon will unveil legislation that would reform the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, the senator told Transport Topics.

The Senate on March 12 easily confirmed Christopher Hart to be the full-time chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

WASHINGTON—Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said tax policy writers in the Senate are “working behind the scenes” to unveil a plan that would ensure long-term funding for highway programs, before a law authorizing such funding expires May 31.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx will be promoting his policy priorities when he speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., on March 16.

Daphne Jefferson was named deputy administrator at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in February, succeeding Bill Bronrott, according to a letter from the agency’s acting administrator obtained by Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the chamber’s third-ranking Republican, said a tax overhaul could solve the short- and long-term funding woes facing the federal transportation system.

Scott Darling, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, is scheduled to appear March 4 before a Senate subcommittee that has jurisdiction over trucking regulations.

WASHINGTON — A Senate transportation panel will unveil a multiyear highway bill before there is a need to approve a short-term extension of funding authority for highway programs, which expires in late spring, the panel’s chairman told Transport Topics on Feb. 25.